For 11 years, Ed King has been grappling with constant changes related to his treatment for head and neck cancer. But rather than facing his situation alone, he has been working to support others coping with the impact of cancer and treatments, and he serves as a community advisor to the University of Colorado Cancer Center.
King also is an ambassador for the Head & Neck Cancer Alliance, is involved with the Imerman Angels cancer support organization, and serves on an advisory committee for the American Society of Clinical Oncology,
King, 80, a northern Colorado resident, husband, father, and business executive, knows intimately the physical and emotional toll that head and neck cancer and treatment can take on long-term survivors.
“We have a very high suicide rate, one of the highest among all cancers, because the effects can be so severe that it becomes very hard to live with,” he says. “In many cases you can’t swallow, you can’t eat, and you may have facial deformities from your treatment. Because of the location in your jaw, your neck, and your mouth, it’s so damaging that people can become isolated and give up.”
King says he’s experienced “some very severe changes in my life” as a result of his cancer as well as radiation treatment. “It’s kind of a constant thing. But I’m all right. I’m at 11 years out and still kicking.”
Drawing on his own experiences with cancer and its treatment, and using organizational skills honed over his long professional career, King established the Northern Colorado Head and Neck Cancer Support Group not long after his diagnosis. It holds monthly meetings where cancer survivors can share stories and access information from various medical experts from around the country.
“Eleven years ago, there was no real support for head and neck cancer survivors,” he says. “We began to realize that if we work together and share our experiences, we can improve our lives. I had met two other survivors near me, one of whom was a medical doctor, and I started the Northern Colorado support group. We invite speakers from all over the United States.”
And since 2020, King has been a member of the CU Cancer Center’s Community Advisory Council (CAC), a panel of cancer survivors, community leaders, health executives, and government officials organized under the cancer center’s Office of Community Outreach and Engagement (COE). The CAC offers feedback and helps the cancer center connect with underrepresented and at-risk communities.
“Ed has been with us from the very beginning,” Evelinn Borrayo, PhD, the CU Cancer Center’s associate director for COE and a professor in the Colorado School of Public Health, said at the CAC’s December 5 meeting, which was attended by CU Cancer Center Director Richard Schulick, MD, MBA, and other cancer center leaders. Borrayo praised King for growing his organization into a major peer cancer support group with members across the country.
Photo at top: Ed King at home, reviewing the Northern Colorado Head and Neck Cancer Support Group's website. Photo provided by Ed King.
Ed King (second from left) at a meeting of the CU Cancer Center’s Community Advisory Council on December 5, 2025. Photo by Mark Harden | CU Cancer Center
King worked as an attorney, a local government official, and the chief legislative assistant for a U.S. senator before joining pharmacy giant Walgreens, where he spent three decades as an executive. After retiring, he became a partner in SpectraDigital Corporation, a Canadian company that develops diagnostic tools.
In early August 2014, King noticed a bump on the underside tip of his tongue that wouldn’t go away. An ear, nose, and throat (ENT) specialist took a biopsy and told King he had a form of head and neck cancer.
A positron emission tomography (PET) scan showed the cancer on the tip of King’s tongue had spread to several lymph nodes in his neck. An initial surgery on his tongue removed the cancer there, but King decided to seek further treatment at the CU Cancer Center, where he began working with a multidisciplinary team that included an ENT surgeon, oncologist, and radiologist, among others.
In late 2014, King had surgery to remove his affected lymph nodes, “which means I have a pirate scar from ear to ear.” He then began two months of daily radiation therapy, along with weekly infusions of monoclonal antibody drugs to enhance the radiation treatments, plus regular visits with a speech therapist and nutritionist.
His friends drove home the 140-mile round trip between his home in Windsor, Colorado, and the CU Anschutz campus. “It was wintertime, so it was always iffy, but we were never late,” he says.
For a time, a feeding tube helped keep King nourished and hydrated. Even so, he lost about 30 pounds during this phase of his treatment. He also experienced low energy, numbness in his neck and lower lip, and extreme skin sensitivity to air movements.
Left: Ed King undergoing treatment. Right: Ed King in a hyperbaric chamber. Photos provided by Ed King.
After finishing his initial round of treatment, “everything was clear,” King says. But the radiation treatments led to severe gum recession and necrosis of his jaw bone – “that means the flesh inside my mouth had receded and the bone was exposed, and some of that bone had died.”
In early 2016, King began 40 days of three- or four-hour sessions in a hyperbaric chamber to boost the oxygen concentration in his blood to arrest the bone loss. King found it ironic, since he had been an active scuba diver, “and one of the primary rules is to practice safe diving and avoid being sent to the hyperbaric chamber.”
Like many head and neck cancer survivors treated with radiation, King had suffered damage to his salivary glands that led to xerostomia, or dry mouth. Severe cases can cause difficulty in eating and speaking.
A researcher who spoke to King’s support group told him of a salivary gland regeneration study at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The study tested an implanted human-engineered gene delivered to damaged glands to restore the flow of saliva.
King enrolled in the study in 2018 and received the gene implant. The initial phase of the study continued for five years, during which he made frequent trips to NIH headquarters in Maryland. He also received enhanced PET scans every two weeks.
“I got a lot more radiation, and they warned me that this could be dangerous, but I knew how severe xerostomia could be,” King says. “It felt like the risk was worth it, but the radiation causes me new issues all the time.”
In King’s case, the treatment “kick-started all of my salivary glands, but all they produce now is basically water. The thickness in saliva that’s supposed to coat and protect your mouth and teeth isn’t there, and they’re not certain why.”
The good news is, King’s head and neck cancer has not returned. “If I have head and neck cancer again, which is possible, it wouldn’t be the same cancer.”
Ed King working out. Photo provided by Ed King
King learned of Borrayo when she was a professor at Colorado State University, doing research on cancer in rural areas, “and I asked her if she would speak to our support group about social, economic, and family problems for survivors of head and neck cancer.” Later, when Borrayo became a CU Cancer Center leader, she invited King to be part of the CAC, which in 2020 began meeting quarterly with various cancer center members.
“We’re a mixture of health professionals, outside people, and leaders of organizations that work with cancer patients around Colorado,” King says. “We’re focused on trying to identify underserved groups – ethnic groups, economically impacted groups, rural groups, and others. Cancer is the No. 1 cause of death in Colorado, and unfortunately, a great deal of this happens out in our rural areas, which are hard to serve. Also, we try to align the goals of the CU Cancer Center with other organizations working on this, so that everything is running constructively and in parallel.”
King’s Northern Colorado support group has grown to around 90 members who attend meetings in person and remotely. The meetings cover a range of topics, including new treatments, side effects, and staying healthy. In 2023, he was invited by the United Kingdom-based Swallows Head & Cancer Support Group to speak at its conference in the UK.
“The opportunities for social, and physiological support in a group are extremely positive,” he says. “And I’ve learned a lot that has helped me personally, from how to approach my problems to knowing that you’re not the only one going through this. People tell me they appreciate the presenters and the information, and that keeps me going.”